The Banquet (Il Convito) eBook

NOTE

ON THE DATE OF THE CONVITO

It is natural to suppose that Dante’s death
at Ravenna in 1321 caused the Convito, a work of his
latter years, to be left unfinished. But there
are arguments that have been especially dwelt upon
by writers who regard the Convito as a work begun
before the conception of the Divine Comedy, and dropped
when the Poet’s mind became intent upon that
masterpiece.

One argument is that the Divine Comedy is nowhere
mentioned or alluded to in the Convito. But as
the place designed for the Convito is midway between
the Vita Nuova, which preceded it, and the Divine Comedy,
which was to follow, references to the poem which was
not yet before the reader would have been a fault
in art.

Another argument is drawn from the fourteenth chapter
of the Second Treatise, where (on page 84 in this
volume) the shadow in the Moon is ascribed to “the
rarity of its body, in which the rays of the Sun can
find no end wherefrom to strike back again as in the
other parts.” In the second canto of the
Purgatorio, Beatrice opposes that opinion, whence
it may be inferred that Dante had learnt better, and
he speaks of this again in a later canto (the twenty-second)
as a former opinion. This leads to an inference
that the Second Treatise was written before 1300.

Attention is due also to a passage in the third chapter
of the First Treatise (on pages 16 and 17 in this
volume), in which Dante speaks of his long exile and
poverty. The exile and the wanderings of Dante
began after the year 1300. He was befriended by
Guido da Polenta in Ravenna, by Uguccione della Faggiola
in Lucca, by Malaspina in the Lunigiana, by Can Grande
della Scala in Verona, by Bosone de’ Raffaelli
in Gubbio, by the Patriarch Pagano della Torre in Udine.
In 1311, when the Emperor Henry of Luxembourg went
to Italy, Dante had some hope of return, which passed
away in 1313 when that Emperor died in Buonconvento.
Dante remained in exile. In 1321 his patron, Guido
Novello da Polenta, sent him on an embassy to Venice,
in which he was unsuccessful. The sea way being
blocked, he had to return by land, and he was struck
by the malaria which caused his death by fever on the
14th of September in that year, 1321. This reference
to long exile leads to an inference that the First
Treatise was written much later than 1300.

But, again, there is a passage in the third chapter
of the Fourth Treatise (on page 171 of this volume)
that points to an earlier date. Frederick of
Suabia is named as the Emperor who

held,
As far as he could
see,
Descent of wealth, and generous
ways,
To make Nobility.